Modified chess game apparatus

ABSTRACT

There is disclosed a modified chess game having a board of alternating squares of different colors laid out in the pattern of a chessboard and having two sets of playing pieces. Each set of playing pieces includes one unique piece designated as a chessman king and at least seven identical pieces, each of which has at least five faces and each of which has at least one of each chessman other than the king designated on at least one of its faces.

United States Patent 1 Brown [451 Sept. 30, 1975 MODIFIED CHESS GAMEAPPARATUS [21] Appl. No.: 523,674

[52] US. Cl 273/131 KC; 273/137 R; 273/146 {51] Int. Cl. A63F 3/02 [58]Field of Search 273/131, 137, 134

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,588,114 6/1971 Vogel273/131 K 3,642,286 2/1972 Moore.... 273/134 AD 3,761,093 9/1973Migliore..... 273/131 AB 3,794,326 2/1974 Bialek 273/131 KC FOREIGNPATENTS OR APPLICATIONS 112,018 10/1925 Switzerland 131 KC 1,034,0306/1966 United Kingdom 273/137 R Primary Examiner-Delbert B. LoweAttorney, Agent, or Firm-Glen R. Grunewald 7 1 ABSTRACT 6 Claims, 6Drawing Figures P .rii

1 MODIFIED CHESS GAME APRARATUS BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Somedrawbacks to the game of chess-are that it progresses very slowly andthat different degrees of skill between opponents result in a game inwhich it is too difficult for an inferior opponent to play a superioropponent, whereby interest in the gase is greatly diminished.

THE INVENTION This invention is a modified chess game which introducesan element of luck and which increases the possible-plays to the extentthat all possible plays cannot be readily anticipated, and accordinglyit speeds up the tempo of the game and provides opportunities forinferior players to make a better contest against superior players. I

The game of this invention is based on chess in that a game board laidout in the chessboard pattern and chessmen which'movexin the usualmanner are employed. The general rules of chess are also employed exceptforthe departures that are possible which are noted or suggested below.The game of this invention includes a chessboard having a plurality ofalternating squares arranged in the pattern of the chessboard and havingtwo sets of playing pieces that are distinguishable from each other bycolor. Each set of playing pieces includesa number of pieces of the samecolor. Each set of pieces has a unique piece marked to designate it as achessman king. This piece may be a conventional chessman king, or it maybe a conventional drawing of a king that is made on one or more faces ofa piece, or it may simply be marked K or king. Each set of chessmen alsoincludes at least seven identical pieces. Each of the identical piecesis a polyhedron having at least five faces, and at least one face ofeach piece is marked to designate each of the conventional chessmenother than a king.

With the special elements of the game as set forth above, the primaryvariation of the usual chess game is that each piece other than thepiece designated a king can change rank during the course of the game.By way of example, one set of rules could be as follows. The

king is placed on the square of the chessboard that is usually occupiedby the king and the other pieces are shaken and rolled as dice. The rankof each of the pieces other than the king is the rank of the up-face ofthe piece as it is randomly rolled or shaken. Thus it is very unlikelythat players will start with equal armies. The pieces other than theking are then placed on the playing board for example, in the first tworows wherever the player chooses to place them and regardless of theirrank. Typically, the players would alternate in placing their pieces,one at a time. Thus each player may arrange his army in a unique mannerof his own choosing. When all the pieces are on the board, the game isbegun with each piece making its usual move. However, if a piece ismoved and captures an opposing piece, the rank of the capturing pieceincreases by one degree. Specifically, if a pawn captures another piece,it becomes a knight; a knight becomes a bishop; a bishop becomes acastle; and a castle becomes a queen. A queen may stay the same if itcaptures another piece, or it may be demoted to a pawn in order to avoidhaving too many queens. If a piece moves without capturing an opposingpiece, it is demoted one rank for example, a knight becomes a pawn. Apawn would remain the samera nk if it moves without capturing anotherpiece. Thus, the, strategy would dictate capturing other pieces so thatthe pieces of a player do not all become of low rank. It could also bebeneficial from the strategy standpoint to demote a piece for example,by moving a bishop without capturing another piece into a position whereit becomes a knight which is in a position where a knights move would besuitable for attacking the opponents king. A

The foregoing rules are by way of example only.

Many other variations of the game could be made within the scope ofchanging the rank of a chessman in the course of the game depending uponits moves. For example, the game could include that a capturing piecetakes the rank of the captured piece, and it could be played with fewerpieces than in a conventional chess game. The game could also be playedstarting with the conventional number of pieces in their conventionalpositions and with their conventional ranks. The chessboard is desirablya conventional chessboard, although it could be varied to have fewerthan sixty-four squares. The game is played with each player having aset of chessmen. As setforth above, the king may be a conventional king,or it may be a polyhedron marked only with king designations on one ormore of its faces. It is preferred that the king be a'cube marked with aking on one or more of its faces. Since the king is unique, it couldalso be a blank cube with all of its faces having no markings, therebyidentifying it as the unique piece. Under any circumstances, it isessential that the king in each set be a unique piece.

The other pieces of each set must be shaped as polyhedrons having atleast five faces. Each chessman other than the king is designated on atleast one face of these pieces. It is preferred that the otherchesspieces be cubes so that they are stable and can be shaken as dice.If the other pieces are cubes, it is preferred that two of the six facesbe designated pawns and that one each of the remaining four is a knight,bishop, castle, and queen. If the game is then started with randomshaking and rolling of the pieces, on the average-one third of thepieces will be pawns and one sixth will be each of the other chessmen sothat the starting distribution of chessmen will be closer to theconventional starting distribution.

The pieces may be irregular polyhedrons such as heptahedrons with fiverectangular faces and two pentagonal faces. It is preferred that thechessmen designated on the faces of the game pieces be arranged so thatrotation of a piece in a specific direction will cause chessmen ofconsecutive rank to be face up.

To facilitate understanding of the invention, the accompanying drawingsare presented.

FIG. 1 is a layout of a tetrahedron suitably marked to be used in thegame of this invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a tetrahedron formed from the layoutillustrated in FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a layout of a suitable heptahedron for use in the game of thisinvention.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of the heptahedron formed from the layoutillustrated in FIG. 3.

FIG. 5 is a perspective view illustrating a unique piece suitable for aking.

FIG. 6 is a conventional chessboard.

Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, the layout in FIG. 1 illustrates the sixfaces of the cube of FIG. 2. As can be seen, faces 1, 2, 3 and 4 aremarked'as the queen, castle, bishop and knight. These are in descendingrank so that changing the piece one rank can be accomplished simply byturning the next consecutive face up. Faces 5 and 6 are each pawns.Thus, the die illustrated in FIG. 2 has one face for each of the queen,castle, bishop and knight and two faces for the pawn. These faces areillustrated with only an initial to designate the chessman that isrepresented. However, it is obvious that conventional two-dimensionalchessmen designations such as those used in printed material may beemployed to identify which face is showing and to distinguish it fromthe other chessmen.

FIG. 3 illustrates an embodiment where an irregular heptahedron isemployed as the piece employed in the game. In this piece, too, faces 7,8, 9, l and 11 are provided sothat each designates a different chessmanin 'order of rank. Faces l2 and 13 are in the shape of pentagons and aredifferent from the rectangular faces 7 through 11 inclusive. These facesare shown blank although they could be designated as pawns or any otherchessman.

FIG. 4 illustrates in perspective how the assembled layout of HG. 3would appear. It illustrates only faces 7 and 8 since those are the onlyones that would be visible in this view.

FIG. illustrates a king piece. As stated hereinabove, the king is uniqueand may have any shape including the conventional king shape. However,it is preferred that it have the shape of the other game pieces, and itis illustrated as a cube with king markings on each face, some of themsimply the letter K to designate king and others in the conventionaldesignation of a king.

FlG. 6 is simply an illustration of a chessboard and needs no furtherdescription.

What is claimed is: l. A game comprising A. a board having a pluralityof alternating colored squares arranged in the pattern of a chessboard,B. two sets of playing pieces distinguishable from each other by color,each set comprising a plurality of pieces of the same color, C. each setof pieces having a unique piece marked to designate it as a chessmanking, and D. each set having at least seven identical pieces, each ofsaid identical pieces having at least five faces, each face of saidpiece being marked to designate a chessman, and each piece including atleast one face designated with each chessman other than a chessman king.2. The game of claim I wherein said board has eight squares on eachside.

3. A set of playing pieces for use in a board game comprising at leastseven identical pieces, each having at least five faces, each facemarked to designate a chessman other than a king chessman, and eachpiece having at least one face marked to designate each of the chessmenother than the king chessman, and a unique piece designated as a kingchessman.

4. The playing pieces of claim 3 wherein each of said identical piecesis a cube having two of its six faces marked to designate pawn chessmen.

5. The playing pieces of claim 3 wherein said king chessman is a cubehaving only faces marked to designate a king chessman.

6. The playing pieces of claim 3 wherein said king chessman is aconventional king chessman.

1. A game comprising A. a board having a plurality of alternatingcolored squares arranged in the pattern of a chessboard, B. two sets ofplaying pieces distinguishable from each other by color, each setcomprising a plurality of pieces of the same color, C. each set ofpieces having a unique piece marked to designate it as a chessman king,and D. each set having at least seven identical pieces, each of saididentical pieces having at least five faces, each face of said piecebeing marked to designate a chessman, and each piece including at leastone face designated with each chessman other than a chessman king. 2.The game of claim 1 wherein said board has eight squares on each side.3. A set of playing pieces for use in a board game comprising at leastseven identical pieces, each having at least five faces, each facemarked to designate a chessman other than a king chessman, and eachpiece having at least one face marked to designate each of the chessmenother than the king chessman, and a unique piece designated as a kingchessman.
 4. The playing pieces of claim 3 wherein each of saididentical pieces is a cube having two of its six faces marked todesignate pawn chessmen.
 5. The playing pieces of claim 3 wherein saidking chessman is a cube having only faces marked to designate a kingchessman.
 6. The playing pieces of claim 3 wherein said king chessman isa conventional king chessman.